KEY WEST, October 23, 2019 – A Key West man is heading to Florida State Prison after pleading out to two drug cases from earlier this year.
On October 10, Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones sentenced Julio Machado, 45, to 36 months in custody followed by 24 months of probation. Assistant State Attorney Cristy Spottswood represented the state.
Machado pleaded no contest to sale of a controlled substance (Fentanyl) within 1,000 feet of a school, sale of a controlled substance (Oxycodone) and two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communications device.
In one case from this past March 20, Key West police set up a controlled narcotics purchase using a confidential informant in a transaction that was recorded. The informant set up the deal to buy Oxycodone pills during a phone call with Machado and the two met at Josephine Street and Atlantic Boulevard, where the informant, using $120 of police-issued money, bought three pills. The transaction occurred within 1,000 feet of Key West High School, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab later confirmed the pills were in fact Fentanyl.
The other case was from March 14 this year, also in a controlled narcotics purchase using a police informant and police-issued money; the deal was recorded. Like in the other case, the informant called Machado to make the deal for three Oxycodone pills and the two met at the same location as in the previous case and completed the transaction for $120.
Machado has served two previous prison sentences, for sale of cocaine and introducing contraband to a detention center.